


A wasteland of broken pieces

by chiapslock



Series: Shiro Birthday Month [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Believed Character Death, Horizon Zero Dawn AU, M/M, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-14 11:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13589061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiapslock/pseuds/chiapslock
Summary: Keith is a child who was shunned at birth from his tribe, prohibited to speak to anyone in the village. His life revolves around the little hut in the mountain where he lives with Kolivan, and learning how to hunt the machines that roams the earth.But this is the story of how Shiro broke tribal law to talk to Keith, and how Keith broke the law of the world to get him back.[Or, alternatively, an Horizon Zero Dawn!AU with Aloy!Keith]





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Today it's super late, and I'm terribly sleepy so I'm going to fix this tomorrow!  
> If you don't know what Horizon Zero Dawn is, I hope I've made things readable anyway, but it's a really great game, I reccomend it!

There is one rule that everyone who lives in the Embrace knows to respect.

The tales of old, of people driven to extinction by breaking rules and disrespecting traditions, have made it clear for the habitants of the Embrace that certain rules must always be respected, as harsh as they might be.

Garrison, the biggest city of the Embrace lives by strict rules. Overseen by the Generals, the rulers of the city, they follow the teachings in fear of being destroyed by the machines like the people of old were.

And while the villagers don't know the reason that pushed the Generals to shun a child that didn't even have a name yet, they all also know that their decision is final and to be respected without questions. For going against the words of the Generals means going against the law of their entire society and the foundation of their peaceful life.

Being shunned isn't a light offense, and it’s usually reserved to people that have broken tribal law. It‘s difficult to see how a child could have made anything to deserve such a treatment, but at the same time no one dares to go against the decision of the Generals.

So, the child is shunned, prohibited to live inside the village's walls and to interact with anyone from inside the village. No one will be able to talk to him and he won't be able to talk to them either. Complete isolation.

But the Generals are not without a heart and although they are condemning the child to the life of an outsider, their objective isn't to have the child killed the first night.

It's the reason why the little child isn't just abandoned in the middle of the forest, but given to a man who had been shunned years ago.

His name is Kolivan, a Galra who had abandoned his own people and their costume long ago to live inside the Embrace. Everyone knows _his_ reason for getting shunned (something that involved the death of his entire team and his desperate attempt to revenge their deaths, running far off the borders of the Embrace and the sacred land in search of revenge; when he had made his way back the General didn’t have any other choice but to shun him) and it seems both like a gift and another punishment to leave the child in his care.

Kolivan, on the other hand, accepts the job bowing his head and thanking the generals for this opportunity.

And so, for the first time, Kolivan looks down at the child in his arms and vows to protect him.

 

 

Keith has never heard anyone talk to him beside Kolivan. Sometimes, when he wanders in the forest, he overhears the voices of some kids and farmers, laughing and calling each other, but when he tries to sneak in and talk to them, they always turn their back on him.

("You're shunned," Kolivan had explained him long ago, "and it's against the law of our people to talk to those who are shunned."

"But why?" Keith had asked, "why did I do?".

Kolivan hadn't been able to answer.)

Keith had tried anything he could think of, but every single one of his attempts had ended badly for him. They had ignored him at best, scurrying way as to not look and talk to him, and at worst it had ended in them deriding him amongst themselves, calling him the kid who had never been loved by anyone.

Keith is eight years old now, and while he had tried to put up a brave face, the isolation has been slowly creeping him.

Kolivan had done his best, and for all Keith sometimes wishes he could like the other kids, he still knows that Kolivan only tries to do what it's best for him.

"Laws are important," Kolivan always tells him, "without rules and respect, we'd only be like the people of old, who fell under their own hubris."

Keith never understands. There's something in the way Kolivan says it, in the way everyone quivers at the sole mention of the people of old, that he doesn't really understand.

Were they really that terrible? Was everything they ever did so dangerous?

There are places inside the Embrace that contains temples of the old gods, or places that have survived and remained from the times of the people of old, but entering them is prohibited to anyone, even someone who is shunned.

Keith has never entered them, following Kolivan’s rules, but he has wondered if the rules of the Garrison had merit. Not everything the Garrison and the Generals ever does is right or for a higher purpose. He is the proof that their people could be just as cruel and just as petty as they accuse the people of old to be.

It makes him wonder, sometimes, what is the difference between the two of them.

 

 

Keith has been training with the bow all morning, even if he feels the weight of the weapon getting more debilitating by the minute. He knows it’s important for him to have a general idea of how to use the weapon before going hunting with Kolivan, but at the same time he doesn’t feel like the bow is the weapon for him.

Keith's strength lays more in his quick reflexes and speed. He thinks he would like a weapon that could attack from a short distance more, but Kolivan always said that the moment a machine got close to you, it was the moment of your death.

He doesn't know if that's true, but Kolivan has never been defeated by a machine, so Keith trusts him completely when it comes to hunting.

The truth is Keith is scared of one day fighting a machine. Just because he's good with fighting, and Kolivan tells him he’s talented and he’s learning every day, doesn’t mean that Keith isn’t acutely aware of the danger machine pose, even the more docile that populate the Embrace.

Still, Keith trains every day.

He cocks another arrow in the bow, tugging the cord as much as he can, and he gets ready to release it—another center, he's sure—when he hears a loud noise from the valley below. A loud clang and rumbling that are unusual at this time of day.

Their little home is situated at the top of a little alcove of a mountain, high enough that they can live without being disturbed, but low enough that Keith can usually hear most of what is going on under them.

He likes spending his afternoons there, listening to the noises of the machines and their gears grinding on each other. Or the hunting parties from the Garrison going out to scavenge some supplies for the people of the Garrison.

Today, however, he hears noises that are a little different. The machines are angry, he realizes, and they are running and screaming louder than usual. It also doesn’t sound like a hunting party and none of the machines seems to be hurt. Has someone been discovered while walking along through the forest?

Kolivan should have been back home long ago, having left to find some food—berries or maybe or, if they are particularly lucky, a boar—but hasn't come back yet. For a second Keith wonders if maybe they have caught Kolivan, who is now in danger and running for his own life.

What if something happens to Kolivan and Keith remains completely alone? Unable to talk to anyone else for the rest of his life?

He feels his throat close up at the sole idea and he acts before thinking, picking up his bow and some arrows and running down the side of the hill as fast as he can.

Even if he can hear the struggle, he can't see anything from his home. The fight must be happening in the forest, under that patch of trees that completely blocks Keith's vision from upside. He runs as fast as he can towards them, almost falling five times.

His bow is still too big for him, Kolivan had warned him about it many times, so it’s even harder for him to transport it, and it keeps hitting the ground every time Keith does a sprint.

In the end Keith stops and hides behind a tree when he sees a Watcher, one of the machines that act as sentinels and attack all organic species, jump from the side. It seems it’s attacking something, but Keith can’t see what it is.

There is also a Strider, a huge horse like machine, but no one seems to have seen him. He uses the fact that he's still invisible to them for his own advantage and he looks around, searching for Kolivan.

What he sees freezes him.

It's not Kolivan that's being attacked but a boy, jumping around to avoid the attacks of the machines as best as he can. He won't be able to continue like that for long, Keith knows, and the machines will win. It’s what it happens when you’re not careful enough and you don’t respect the machines, or so Kolivan always says

Judging by his clothes, the kid seems to be a villager from the Garrison, but it looks like someone who is already used to fighting. He jumps a minute before the machine strikes and he seems to predict their movements like a warrior. Keith doesn't know how old this boy is, but he can recognize the signs of a cadet in training.

Cadets are the Garrison's soldiers. Every young of the village will have a chance to prove themselves and become a Cadet, but most start training even before time.

This guy seems to be one of them.

But Keith doesn't know what to do. It's not Kolivan that's being attacked, like he had feared, and now his presence here feels useless.  He can't help one of the village, it goes against the rules. And yet he doesn't want to leave this boy to die, torn apart by a machine. It takes him one second to make the decision, and then he takes his bow and gets ready.

Every machine has some parts that are more vulnerable than others, but Keith had never really learned them. He thinks a Watcher's vulnerability is its eye, big and red, perfect to use as a target. He focuses on it, even if it’s different from a still target. The watcher moves and jumps and Keith has to wait for a second where the machine finally stops to release the arrow.

It flies straight, towards his target, and it embeds itself perfectly in the Watcher's eye, and the machine goes dead on the ground.

The other machine look to the direction of Keith and he tries to stay as hidden as possible. Thankfully they don't seem to realize his position and the tree he has hidden behind serves him as the perfect cover.

Another Watcher stalks by, looking around, but Keith stays silent and holds his breath as much as possible. When he hears the machine walk away he looks back again and sees that the kid has gotten away.

Without saying thanks.

Keith is used to it, really, and he doesn't know what he had expected.

At least, he thinks, he got out of this encounter unscathed.

He starts walking back, slowly this time, when he hears a little noise from the right. He draws his bow immediately, even if he's too late to draw the arrow and so he just stays there, holding the weapon uselessly.

The boy from before is standing there, looking at him with an expression of wonder, almost as if he doesn't know what to do with Keith.

Keith, at the same time, isn't even sure of what he should do. It's against the law to talk to him, and as much as Keith wants to talk to someone, he knows that the consequence wouldn't be pretty.

In the end, he decides to just walk away and he takes a step back. He freezes in shock when the boy says, "Wait!" and Keith's whole word changes.

He freezes, panic flowing through his veins. No one had ever talked to him (without counting Kolivan who had been forced when Keith was too little to take care of himself) and hearing another voice, so different from the one of his surrogated father, directed at him is an experience he hadn't thought would ever happen to him.

Why is this person talking to him? Is he shunned as well? But even between shunned, they can't talk to each other (he and Kolivan being the exception).

The other boy opens his mouth again to say something, but immediately the thought of hearing something else, another sound, sends Keith into a panic and he runs away.

He doesn't want to show the boy where they live, so he runs in the opposite direction. A part of him hears the boy say something else and maybe run to catch him, but Keith had always been very fast.

Keith keeps going for ten minutes straight before he doesn't hear the noise of steps behind him, but he keeps going for another two minutes before he dares look back.

There's no one following him now and Keith slows down a little, trying to catch his breath. It's at that point that he falls down a hole, an opening in the ground he hadn’t noticed in his haste to get away.

He must have been distracted and hadn't notice how far away he had gotten, because when he opens his eyes he realizes immediately where he is.

Keith had never been inside one of the ruins, but he recognizes the entry by how much time he had passed spying on the ruin itself, hoping to see something that could make sense of his many doubts about the people of old and his own people.

Now he's inside.

He looks around to find some place to climb out of, but there isn't a single place for him to get a solid foothold. He knows that if he tries to climb chances are he will fall down again.

The only thing he sees is the entryway of the ruin and he can only hope that there is another exit somewhere on the other side, or Keith will die in here, forgotten by everyone.

He gets up and notices immediately his bow shattered on the ground. He tries to remain calm, now completely weaponless. If there is any machine down here, any danger left from the world of old, he is defenseless.

Keith tries to stay calm and he starts walking, trying to look around as much as possible. The ruins are made of the same material of the machines and they look just as sturdy. Most of the rocks have conquered the walls creating a strange effect that it's a mix between rock and metal.

He advances for a minute before he sees what looks like a body on the floor. It is a human’s body, that is certain, but it doesn’t look like one of the villagers. The corpse too has been consumed by the rocks and the vegetation around them. It looks like whoever this was, it had been there a long time.

The body is almost completely covered, but Keith can see that there is something shiny on the body's ear. It looks like a little device that had the form of a triangle and it pulses, sometimes, with a purple glow.

He has never seen something like this and he reaches for it before he can really stop himself. The moment his finger touches the device a little spark passed between them and Keith startles and jumps back, landing on his feet. His entire body feels shocked by the contact, and he holds his hand closer to his chest.

He has no idea what that might be, but he realizes that it must be an artifact left from the other world. This person must be one of the old people, and his body has been conserved for hundreds of years thanks to the rocks around them. Keith wonders how did he die, but for what he can see, it seems to him like it had been peaceful.

He hesitates again before reaching another time and brush his finger to the other’s ear. He expects another shock and he’s cautious, moving his hand slowly to lightly touch the device. Nothing happens this time, however, and he closes his finger on the little device, taking it and holding it up to his face to see it better.

It's little and sleek, with some purple lights that shine at intermittence, almost like the eye of a machine. It doesn’t weight almost anything and it doesn’t look to have any apparent use, at least not like this.

Keith looks down at the body and then decides that, even if he's not sure if this is safe, the curiosity compels him to act. He puts the device in his ear, just like the corpse had, and waits for the imminent bolt of electricity or surge of energy or _anything_ like what had happened before. Instead he only ears a sound and, when Keith reopens his eyes, the only things different is that there are lights in front of his eyes.

He looks around and sees that the device seems to be cataloguing and showing him the names of everything he sees around him. Even the plants, that Keith is still too little to recognize at first glance, are easily marked and tagged.

Keith raises a hand to his own ear, mystified.

He looks back at the corpse and sees that the device is showing him something else, a blade that is sticking a little from the side of the rock. Keith knows he's going to have a hard time with a machine without a weapon so he bends down and takes hold of the dagger's handle and pulls as hard as he can.

It takes a while for the blade to be removed from the rock, but when it does, Keith can finally look at the weapon. This looks, just as the device, like a machine with little lights shining through. The blade of the weapon glints with different colors when Keith bends it one way or the other.

Purple and blue and pink and red. It almost looks like a rainbow to his eyes and Keith loses himself in it for a while. Could the people of the old world really be that bad if they made something so pretty? Was really everything they ever did so terrible? His device also shows him more, translates the strange markings on the side of the blade effortlessly, even if it’s a language Keith has never seen before.

He wonders what this device can do exactly and if there are limits to the power it possesses.

He shakes his head after five minutes have passed. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have time to lose, Kolivan probably already looking for him, and puts the blade in his hand, advancing slowly through the ruins.

The new device he has found shows him things he hadn't noticed before. Power sources, just like what the machine use to remain actives, and messages sent by the people of old to other people. There are images of families and messages of love and they look so real in front of Keith's eyes.

Holograms, his device informs him, while it shows him the a parent smiling at his own son, promising that he loves him. It speaks of people who were not all that different from them and who, maybe, could have loved Keith more than the people of his own world.

Keith shakes his head in the end and continues forward. He doesn't know how much time has passed, but he knows Kolivan would be worried about him if he returned and didn't found him at home. He will also have to explain him how he broke his bow and he doesn't look forward to the scolding that will ensue.

There are no dangers, in the end, inside the ruins and when he reaches another entrance he starts to climb out, making sure not to fall. Half-way there he hears someone call his name, and knows that it can be only one person: "Kolivan!" he calls, "I'm here."

As much as he doesn't want Kolivan to know what he has done, he also doesn't think he can keep it a secret, nor he wants Kolivan to worry more than necessary.

Kolivan's head appears immediately on the other side of the entrance to the ruin and he looks panicked, with a ragged breath and his hair mussed. He was looking for him, worried.

"What are you doing there, Keith?" Kolivan says, extending an arm and helping him climb out, "You know those aren't places for you. They are dangerous."

"I fell down," Keith replies, honestly, even if he isn't sure how much dangerous they really are.

"What were you even doing here in the forest," Kolivan scolds him, before looking at the device in his ear. "And what is that? Did you find that in there? You know the relics of the old world are not for us to play with."

The other reaches for Keith's ear, trying to remove the little device, but Keith is quicker than him and he backs up, shaking his head.

"No," He says, angry, "This is mine. I found it."

"You don't even know what it is," Kolivan rumbles, angry "this is not a toy, Keith."

But Keith knows what it is. It's something that makes him able to _see_ images he longs for, of people who could have loved him, of voices he could have heard all his life.

He desires them with a strength that surpasses anything.

Kolivan looks at him and must see the determination in his eyes. He just shakes his head and turns away, disappointed.

Keith just holds his hands on the device and holds them there protectively.

 

 

Days pass where Keith learns to use his new device. He also gets better with the blade he had found.

The dagger can expand his length during battle, or so the marking say, and Keith loves it. He finds himself much more suited for this kind of technique than ranged attacks, and while Kolivan looks at him with reproach, he finally thinks he found something that adapts to him, that makes him feel _real_.

Sometimes, Keith wonders what could have been like, living in the time of the old ones, without the traditions and the tribes. He likes to think that it was a happier time.

Kolivan finally lets Keith leave their little hut after two days, having confined him in his room for disobeying. Keith immediately goes to explore the forest, using his _focus_ (the device had showed his name to him) and cataloguing things he couldn't before.

He's able to see animals from far away, even hidden behind a rock, and he can see the patterns of movements of some machines. The focus seems to show him things impossible to see to the naked eyes, and opens his mind to everything around them.

How the focus does all this, Keith doesn't know, and isn't sure he would even be capable of understanding it, but he enjoys these little explorations immensely.

Until, one day, his focus picks something different and when Keith turns to look at it, he sees that it's a human walking through the forest. He's far away enough that Keith can't see him with his naked eye, but the focus shows him as a purple dot, walking in the distance.

He doesn’t want to talk to him—Keith has learned nowadays, that trying never ends well—but he just wants to see who it is and what this human is doing here.

So, he follows from the trees and makes sure to hide in the bushes. Thankfully Keith is small and adept in how to live in a forest and use its many hiding places to his advantage.

When he finally reaches the human and looks at him, he realizes it's the same boy from the other day.

He looks well, less busy now that he doesn’t seem to be under the attack of any machine— which is always a plus—and he doesn't look hurt. Keith had saved him just in time the other day, it seems.

Now, what he's doing here again, that's another mystery.

The truth is that it's very rare for someone from the Garrison to push to this side of the forest, it's why Kolivan had chosen it as the place where he would build his hut, so to see this boy twice in a row around these parts is strange.

Keith is curious.

He peeks with the focus to see if there could be anything around that could attract the other's interest, but he doesn't find anything.

His interest is piqued and he starts following him, making sure to never be discovered. The boy looks around a lot, as if he's looking for something, and cementing in Keith the idea that it's going to be worth following him.

This little dance continues for a while, with Keith trailing the boy, and the other just stumbling around. At least, it seems like he isn't completely clueless and he does, in fact, avoid the machines' usual spots.

But his research seems to be endless, so much so that Keith is getting tired and stumbling around without putting all that much thought into it.

He thinks about abandoning his trailing once or twice, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he keeps going.

It's a mistake, because you never try to push over your limits— or so Kolivan has always told him—and the next time Keith tries to jump from a tree branch to another he loses his footing and falls down.

He manages to break his fall a little thanks to some minor branches closer to the ground, but he still hits it with a sounding moan of pain.

The boy looks back, startled and with a hand to his own bow, but he relaxes his stance immediately when he notices it’s not a machine. It’s a peculiar reaction that not a lot of villager would have when faced with someone who is shunner. This boy doesn’t look disgusted like most, actually he looks mostly surprised.

"It's you!" the boy says and, again, Keith feels panic swell inside him. The boy's voice is richer than Keith's, deeper. He's probably older, but he doesn't look old enough to be one of the Cadets.

Keith hadn't seen many other kids in his life, but no one he knew had a voice like that. Or so at least it feels for him.

His sole companion in his life has been Kolivan and, lately, the synthesizes voices of the people of old, who had never felt like real human voices.

Keith looks up, startled, when the boy comes to him, his eyes pinched in a worried frown. "Are you okay?".

Keith wants to answer, but he can only focus on the fact that this boy is _talking_ to him. The first time they had met it had been enough of a shock, but now he's sure the other knows Keith is shunned, so why does he keep talking to him?

"You shouldn't be talking to me," Keith says, anyway, and it feels strange to talk to someone else. It has been a year since the last time he had tried to make contact with anyone of the village, and it seems longer now, faced with the prospect of actually having a conversation with someone.

The boy looks startled and then he smiles, crouching down. "Yeah, but I'm not going to tell anyone. Are you?"

Keith looks surprised and he blinks twice, feeling something warm swell in his stomach. This boy knows, but he still wants to talk to him?

"I won't," he promises, a little desperate. What if the boy thinks Keith is lying? What if he thinks that he can't trust him. "I promise I won't ever tell anyone. I won't ever tell Kolivan."

His voice must come out desperate, because the other boy reaches down and puts a hand on Keith's shoulder.

It's different when it's not Kolivan, who has a big, _big_ , hand that is never as gentle as Keith wants it to be. The boy's hand is small, but strong. It the sign of someone who has trained hard and much, someone who is dependable.

Keith likes his grip.

"It's okay," the boy reassures him, with a smile, "I know you won't. You saved me, I trust you."

Keith opens his mouth, but closes it, too shocked to say anything. So, he just nods again, making sure the other understands how much he means it.

"Can I ask for your name?" the boy asks, smiling, "I can't keep calling you _the boy who was shunned_. I'm Shiro."

_Shiro_.

"I'm, I'm Keith," he replies, still wondering how any of this could be happening. "My name hasn't been blessed by the Generals, but it's what Kolivan calls me."

Shiro looks at him and nods, extending a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Keith," Shiro says, smiling.

Keith _stares_ no one had ever said it was a pleasure to meet him. No one had even thought it, probably.

He takes the other boy's hand and lets him help him up. "It's a pleasure for me too," he admits, imitating the way the other talk, and he hopes it does come as sincere as he means it.

Shiro just keeps smiling at him.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
>   
> 
> 
> This 1) late and 2) supposed to be the last chapter AND INSTEAD IT IS NOT. SO I GUESS ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> I want to adress something however, because I realized that I did NOT put down "BELIEVED Character Death" in the tags. So. You know. If there is NOT a "character death" tag around is because there is NO CHARACTER DEATH. Plz remember....  
> and after this totally not ominus introduction. Good read!

In the end it becomes a habit. Sometimes, while Keith is scanning the forest with his focus, he sees a human wandering just down from his house and knows it's Shiro, looking for him.

Shiro is three years older than him, and he doesn't have parents as well, being raised by his grandpa. As he suspected, Shiro wants to be a Cadet. He wants to protect their peaceful home, he says, with a serious look and a smile that makes him look older.

Shiro trains a lot, almost all his time is devoted to training and getting better. He creates intricate routes throughout the forest, and difficult battle techniques. Shiro seems determined, a fire inside of him that is almost blinding.

Shiro also shows him a different way of fighting. Where Kolivan prefers stealth and distance, the other boy attacks close range, with a long staff. He dances with it and when Shiro proposes they train together, Keith jumps at the opportunity.

They spar and train and they become friends.

It's unusual for them not to see each at least once a week, with Shiro sneaking out as much as he can to see Keith.

Keith tries to tell Shiro about his life, about what he does with Kolivan, but he realizes that his own stories are never as good as Shiro's who tells Keith of the gossips in the village. He wants to say he's sorry, but the other always laughs at the stupid anecdotes Keith tells him.

What Keith really wants to do, in the end, is show Shiro his focus and the blade he had found in the ruins of the old world, but he doesn't know how the other would take it.

He knows that Shiro doesn't believe in some of the traditions of the Garrison, the shun rule being one of them, but at the same time Shiro is extremely protective of their people and Keith doesn't know what would be considered a danger for him.

Would he change his mind about Keith if he showed him what he had taken with him? If he told him that he has entered the ruins and got out with something?

Keith isn't ready to lose Shiro over something like this, even if he has to hide the little device and never show the full possibility of his weapon.

After all, this is the first time Keith has ever made a friend, and it feels much more important than the voices in the focus.

 

 

In the years that come, they see each other more and more. It becomes such a recurring occurrence, that they reach the point where they manage to sneak out once a day, even if not for a lot of time, just to spend some time with one another.

Shiro's training is becoming increasingly difficult now that he is almost twenty years old, and the day of the proving is getting closer and closer. And while Keith enjoyed watching Shiro’s train as always, the proving had always been a difficult topic for him.

The proing was a challenge where everyone of the youngs who wanted to be Cadets would compete to prove who was worthy of becoming one of the elite army in the Garrison's command.

Whoever made it to the end of the challenge was accepted into the Cadets. The first of the apprentices, the best of all the aspiring cadets, however would receive something special unlike the other: a reward. The possibility to ask anything of the Generals. He could ask for power, for recognition, for a better house, for more supplies. Anything he wished.

Even child who had been shunned when they were little and not of age could participate in the proving and show their potential so that they could become cadets and be readmitted in the village. Shunned no more.

Keith had grown up a lot and he had changed from the little boy who only wanted someone to like him. He had Shiro, now, and Kolivan, and he had realized long ago that he didn't need the village to be happy.

The only good thing that could come from being reintegrated in the Garrison was the possibility of actually spending all his day with Shiro, instead of sneaking out every day like they were doing now.

They had wondered sometimes, especially after the death of Shiro's grandfather a couple of years earlier, if it could have been possible for Shiro to go and live in the mountains, but Keith knew Shiro would never be happy in the hut with them.

As much as Shiro didn't want to live by some of the Garrison's rules, he was their shiniest one of them all. He thrived among them, and Keith could have never removed him from the village, not even for his own selfish desires.

Sometimes he still wants to propose to Shiro to come and live with them, away from the toxicity of most of the Garrison’s villagers, but Shiro always smiles.

"We're young," Shiro tells him, a lot, "we have time, there's no need to grow up all at once. I'm going to wait for you."

Keith knows what Shiro is talking about, and his ever-growing feelings are hard to ignore. But still, Keith follows Shiro's suggestion and he lets it go, enjoying the time they have together without worrying about anything else.

What Keith really wanted out of the proving, when one day he would be able to participate, is to be able to ask the Generals _why_ he was shunned. What had he done that it was so terrible? Who were his parents? Who was he?

It has always been a mystery that had plagued Keith's life. He doesn’t know where he come from, if his parents whomever they were had at least loved him.

When he tells Kolivan that _that_ is the reason why he wants to run in the proving, the other smiles, a sad expression that also speaks of pride.

When he tells Shiro, the other boy looks at him with a resolute expression. "I can ask for you," Shiro says, looking at the village in the distance. "I'm going to be running comes winter, and that's three years ahead of when you can try. I can win it and ask for you."

Keith looks startled and surprised, having never contemplated the possibility of having Shiro ask for him.

"I can do it myself," he still says, "you should ask for what you want."

Shiro shrugs, and looks down at his feet. "I was already going to ask for the permission to talk to someone who was shunned," Shiro confesses, with a shy smile, "but I don't really care that much that we have to sneak out."

Keith looks up surprised at this and looks at Shiro with a confused expression. "You could ask to finally see Galra land outside of the borders, like you always dreamed to, or to have a new staff since yours is breaking apart. And you want to ask for permission to talk to me?"

Shiro shrugs, deciding that he's _not_ going to be embarrassed about this in the end. "I like you more than both of those things, so it seemed logical. But this might be better. I will ask them for answers and tell them to you, so that once you'll be of age to run in the proving you can choose yourself if you want to actually do it."

Keith holds his breath, still thinking about Shiro's confession about liking him and _wanting him_ more than things Keith has heard him talk about so many times before. And tries to make Shiro see reason, "But I might not want to run in the proving without this. I mean, I don't know but...."

"I know," Shiro concedes, with a smile that's a little sad, "and I want you to be able to make your decision on your own. If you want to be a part of the Garrison or not... that's fine with me. We'll find a way to make it work."

Keith looks at him, a little shocked but most of all moved by the other's sentiment. A part of him still says that he can do it on his own, he doesn't need Shiro's help, but another part of him _likes_ the fact that while he doesn't need the help, Shiro is giving it to him so freely.

Sometimes he wonders what would have happened to him if he hadn't followed Shiro that day, if he had run away again at the sound of his voice.

Maybe nothing would have changed for Keith, but he likes to think that he would be less for it.

"You hate that I'm not part of the village," he reminds him, because Shiro had ranted about it at length in the years they have spent together, lamenting Keith's condition and poor socialization skills.

Shiro just huffs, shaking his head. "I hate how they treat you because of it. What they say about you. I hate that I know you want to make friends, but you convinced yourself you don't need anyone else."

"I don't," Keith assures him immediately, but Shiro just smiles sadly.

"If you don't want to be a part of the village because you're angry and want to live on your own, I would be sad, but I understand it. I..." Shiro stops and shrugs a little "I just want what you want."

Keith thinks about it for a second, without the need to take part in the proving to know his own heritage. Does he really want to be part of the village who has treated him so terribly for all these years? No, not really.

Once, maybe, when he had been desperate for any kind of attention. But not today.

Does he want to be part of Shiro's life? Yes. That he wants. And he knows, without any doubts, that the village will always be an important part of Shiro. His sense of duty, his need to protect. In the end he doesn't think it's that much of a choice.

"I want to take part in the proving. But I don't think I want to live inside the village," he admits. Shiro smiles in the end and nods.

"Not everyone does. It's safer in there, but some people decide they prefer to live just a little bit outside," Shiro explains with a smile. He's happy about Keith's decision, it's obvious, but he's trying to downplay it. "You have three years to make a decision, anyway. And I don't want you to make it before knowing everything. I'll ask the generals for you and then you'll know."

It sounds too good to be true, really. He doesn't know what the story behind Keith's life is, but he doesn't think anything could make him want not to be with Shiro.

Still, he nods and Shiro smiles at him, picking back his staff.

"Now, back to training. Or someone will beat me to the finish line and then this will all be moot," Shiro jokes, relaxed and happy.

Keith tries to imprint this image into his memory while he makes a better grip on his own knife.

He thinks he will never cherish anything like he does this.

 

 

When he returns home that night, Kolivan is waiting for him by the fire cackling in front of their house. The other motions for Keith to sit with him and so Keith does.

They haven't talked as much lately, since Keith spends all of his free time sneaking out to be with Shiro, but the air between them still feels comfortable. It speaks of years of bonding and deep love.

"The day of the proving is approaching," Kolivan says, out loud, and Keith nods.

"Winter time," he says, remembering Shiro's smile, "Not that I can take part in it. For me it's another three years."

Kolivan nods, looking at the red flames for a moment. "So, your friend isn't going to compete?" the other asks and Keith feels his entire blood freeze.

He had never told Kolivan about Shiro. On one hand because he knew that Kolivan was very strict about tribal laws and he had been afraid the other would have prohibited him from meeting the other boy. But also, because he had promised Shiro, when Keith was just a little boy scared but so excited to finally have a friend.

He turns towards Kolivan, who has a little devious smile on his face. "You were good at sneaking around when you were little, but you were just a little boy."

Keith nods, knowing full well that Kolivan, who had taught Keith most of what he knew, wouldn't have had any problems tracking him down.

"You never said anything," he accuses him, feeling a little miffed at the idea that the other had known all this time.

Kolivan just shrugs, fixing some of the logs on the campfire. "You were happy and never in any danger. I had heard of Shiro, he was a bright boy."

"It sounds like you approve of him," Keith says, smiling a little at the thought.

Kolivan laughs out loud, shaking his head, "as you ever needed my approval for anything in your life." It's true, Keith had never needed it, but it felt right to know he still had it.

"He says he wants to ask them about me," Keith confesses. Their conversation has been playing in his head almost as if the focus has been showing it to him over and over. "I told him he shouldn't waste his request on me, but he's stubborn."

Kolivan shrugs, "maybe he doesn't see it as wasting it."

Keith knows, but that's not the point. It feels like Shiro keeps giving him things—his friendship, his wish—but that Keith has nothing to offer him.

The only tings Keith has to his name—the focus and the blade—he has kept hidden from the other, in fear of him rejecting them.

It's Keith himself that doesn't feel worthy of having Shiro sacrifice so much for him, when Keith hasn't been honest with him all this time.

"He said he wouldn't care if I didn't join the village," Keith says, because this has been on his mind as well. Shiro would give up a life in the village to go with him in the little house in the forest, because Keith knows he would, and he doesn't even blink at the idea.

"Do you want to join the village?" Kolivan asks, not unkindly and Keith tells him what he didn't have the courage to tell Shiro.

"I would love to travel the world," he admits, "even if living the embrace would get me exiled. I want to see what it's beyond the border, and I know Shiro does too. He told me."

"But he's not ready to do it," Kolivan concludes, looking at him. Keith only nods, knowing full well that Shiro would want to have permission to leave. Maybe that's what Keith could ask them, once he wins the proving.

In three years, he will ask for him and Shiro to leave the lands, to go to the Galra lands and beyond there too.

He thinks Shiro would follow him then, with the promise of having the possibility to come back.

"Whatever you chose to do," Kolivan says in the end, looking at him, "I want you to know that I'm on your side."

Keith looks at him, a little surprised at the admission—Kolivan had never been one for kind words—but in the end he smiles. "You could come with us, get to actually know Shiro."

Kolivan only smiles, shaking his head. "What lies beyond the border doesn't interests me, Keith. I'll stay here."

The thought of leaving Kolivan scares him a little, abandoning the only home he had known in his life. But the prospect of a free life, of somewhere he can be himself and no one will judge him or despise him for his birth, intrigues him.

In the end he has three years to think about it.

 

 

Winter comes too soon, and every day leading up to that he and Shiro train together, sharpening Shiro’s reflexes and preparing him for the day of the proving.

Two days before the big event, he and Shiro are just lying on the ground after having finished the daily training routine, and Keith feels tired but satisfied.

"You know," Shiro says, with a smile, "I think you could beat me tomorrow, if you participated."

Keith laughs, disbelieving. "You just kicked my ass, Shiro."

"I'm stronger than you physically, and I have more stamina," Shiro explains, turning so that they are looking directly at each other, "but you're quicker than me, and have better reflexes. You just seem to predict my attacks most of the time and are able to adapt to them in a second. Believe me. You could win."

Keith feels a blush spread to his face, but he forces himself to push it down and keep his gaze fixed on Shiro's.

"We will never know. But you better win tomorrow," Keith tells him with a smile, "or after all your big talks it would just be disappointing, wouldn't it?"

Shiro laughs, kicking him lightly where he can reach. "I'll show you. I've trained hard."

Beside everything, Keith knows that Shiro cares about this, that he wants to win this for himself other than for Keith.

Shiro had never been one of the kids destined to success, son of two farmers and raised by his own sickly grandfather. He had dreamed of being a Cadet, of making something of himself.

Keith understands him, in a way, and sometimes the knowledge that in the end him and Shiro aren't this different has been a comfort to him.

In the end tomorrow Shiro will run for both of them and the thought fills him with a strange mixture of emotions.

Like every time he thinks about it, he wonders if he should finally admit to Shiro about his focus. That most of the time when he's predicting Shiro's movements it's because the focus helps him, makes him see things that he normally wouldn't have.

It feels fair to admit it to Shiro now, before he goes and uses his whish just for Keith, but just like the other times Keith freezes, feeling dread spreading inside of him.

Shiro must notice something because he sits up quickly, looking at him with a worried expression, "Are you okay?" he asks, worriedly, "did I hit you too hard?"

Keith immediately shakes his head, making sure the other knows he's perfectly safe. He doesn't want to worry him, not really, but he also doesn't know what to do.

He looks directly into Shiro's eyes, big and honest, and he reaches with one hand to him, almost on impulse. The moment his fingers come in contact with Shiro's face he almost retracts them, expecting a bolt of electricity or _something,_ just like the time he had touched the focus for the first time.

For a lot of reasons, this feels even more unnerving than that.

He has much more to lose now than he ever had in those ruins.

Keith opens his mouth to tell him, to finally admit the one secret he has kept all this time, a shameful thing hidden in plain view, but he hesitates.

Shiro is pliant under his touch, just like he was made to be there, to be touched by Keith.

And while Shiro had always said they can keep it slow, that he wants Keith to pass his proving before they make any kind of decision, Keith has always known that he will end up forever stuck on Shiro.

He remembers the little boy's voice, the first one who had talked to him of his own volition, and he remembers the warmth and the joy.

Is he really worried that Shiro will reject him if he knows of the focus? Of the blade?

And yet, what he says is, "Thank you."

He doesn't know exactly what is he thanking Shiro for. He could be thanking him for the proving and the whish Shiro will make for him, or he could be thanking him for talking to him that first time, where Keith had been too little and too scared.

Or he might be thanking him for the future they will have and what they will build.

Shiro looks surprised for a second but smiles, closing his eyes and shifting slightly to adjust his face so that he can turn and plant a little kiss to the inside of Keith's palm.

This is the most they have ever done, the most plainly they have addressed this thing that exists between them and it leaves Keith wanting for more.

"You don't need to thank me," Shiro says, with a little smile, "I've loved every second of it."

 

 

The next day, Shiro isn't able to sneak out to see Keith because of the ceremony. The cadets will receive the blessing of the Generals for the proving of the next day and will sleep isolated from the rest of the village.

From what Keith knows it's an incredible day, with dances and feast and visitors from all over the Embrace. It makes it easier for his to sneak inside the village and observe from afar, looking at everyone else's celebration and trying to spot Shiro in the crowd.

From the places Keith has find to spy on everyone, he only spots Shiro once or twice, and even then, he knows it's him only because Keith has spent a lot of time looking at the other's profile.

This is the first time Keith has been able to see Shiro in his natural habitat, interacting with the people of the village and smiling with them. He seems to be friendly with most of them, smiling and talking with everyone he meets.

But Keith sees that he keeps himself a little distant, that he doesn't smile as openly or as easily as he does with Keith. The knowledge that even in a life filled with so many people Keith is still Shiro's first choice, fills him with warmth.

He had only wanted to look at him for a while before retreating, hoping that it would ease some of his worry.

Shiro is a capable fighter, Keith knows that better than most, but at the same time he can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen, something that Keith will have no control over.

Still, he sees Shiro, as healthy as ever, an there is no reason for him to stay there and risk someone catching him. He's ready to leave when his focus picks up a strange signal. He looks around, surprised, and his gaze locks with someone else's.

Keith stares, surprised, before looking at the other's ear and seeing another focus.

He had never before this seen another of them and he stops, surprised and a little scared. Curiosity swells up inside him, but he knows it would be dangerous to approach the stranger in case they attract someone else's attention.

In the end it's the other person who walks up to him, evidently surprised. "I never expected someone in the Embrace wearing a focus," he says, looking surprised.

"I have never seen another focus before," Keith admits, looking at him with wonder.

The man smiles, shaking his head. "Really? Well, it's not surprising, you've never been outside Garrison's territory probably. We, outside of the borders, use them regularly in the military. There is no need to fear machines, now is there?"

Keith nods, surprised. "I'm Keith," he says, because he remembers that introducing yourself is the polite thing to do.

The other man just smiles. "I haven't had to introduce myself in a while," he admits, with a little flourish, "my name is Lotor, and I am the prince of the Galra empire, sent here to foster our amicable relationship with this land."

Keith doesn't know much about politics, but he remembers Shiro mentioning the Galra royal family, and how they had seemed more intent into communicating with the Garrison and the Embrace in general.

Maybe if he manages to convince Shiro to really travel to Galra territory with him they could explore and see other focuses, find one for Shiro too.

"Are you participating in the proving tomorrow?" the prince asks with a smile, "all the young ones seem to. But you're here on your own."

Keith realizes that this might be a problem. This is not just a random stranger, but the prince of an entire nation and, most importantly, someone who can talk directly with the generals. He has to lie.

"Yes. I just don't much like the others," he says, looking behind him. He has already overstayed his welcome, and every second more he spends inside the village is a risk he can't take.

He wants to stay and talk with the prince, ask of the focus and its many mysteries, but he knows he can't.

"I have to go now," Keith says, starting to walk back.

"Oh, it's okay I understand. I can't wait for the show tomorrow," the prince say, with a smile, "I think it will be quite explosive."

His phrasing is curious and Keith looks at him, a little confused, but the other just smiles and waves at him, so Keith doesn't have any other choices but to leave.

 

 

The night he dreams of what the answer will be, what will the Generals reveal to Shiro the following night.

He had thought about it all his life, the mystery of his existence, but now that the day he discovers it it's growing closer, the feels worried. Maybe it was something worse than he imagined? Maybe, maybe his parents had never loved him at all and he was casted away because he was rejected by everyone.

In the end sleep comes late for him, and when he wakes up it's a little later than he would have liked.

Kolivan doesn't seem to be in their hut, probably out for a run, and Keith leaves without waking him.

Keith doesn't know for sure where the proving takes place, but he remembers Shiro talking about the side of one of the biggest mountains behind the Garrison. He figures that he will go there and then, if he's lucky, find the right spot in time for Shiro to win.

The trek is not that difficult, but the terrible freezing weather of winter, used to pose a challenge for the aspiring cadets, makes walking a little difficult.

For someone who hasn't trained all their life, Keith supposed, this would be a challenge too difficult to surpass.

The more he walks, the more Keith thinks Shiro was right. Maybe Keith wouldn't have won against Shiro, but he knows now that he's ready for the proving and he knows he would beat anyone of the village kids.

The possibilities of the Garrison having another Shiro is slim, and Keith feels confident towards anyone else.

All their ruminations these past few days, of wishes and demands to pose to the Generals return to his mind and he smiles to himself at the thought of what the future will mean for them.

Unlike the previous night, where nightmares and anxious thoughts had populated his mind, he feels free of stress now, happy and secure in the future. It's a strange feeling that Keith isn't used to have.

He guesses he should thank Shiro for this too.

Keith is climbing the side of a cliff, trying to reach a little clearing in the rocks, and he actually thinks he's going in the right direction since he has found some rope and grapples scattered around, usually the symbol of a Garrison training facility close by, when he hears a booming sound, deafening in its intensity. He closes his eyes, trying to keep his grip and not fall to his probable death. He opens his eyes slowly when the noise stops and he looks behind him, watching flames and smoke raging in the near distance.

It's not all that far from where he is, actually, and Keith feels his throat close up with terror. He doesn't know what that could have been, if some kind of Machine, but he knows that whatever it is, that was probably the place where the proving took place.

He scrambles to reach a flat surface and when he does he starts running panic overriding all of his conscious thoughts. Keith needs to arrive there, Keith needs to make sure that Shiro is all right.

Shiro, who had smiled at him two days ago. Shiro, whose skin had been warm against Keith's hand, whose mouth had been soft kissing Keith's skin.

Keith's heart is beating as fast as a Charger run, and he trips on snow and fear, hitting the ground with his face. The freezing ground isn't enough to awake him. He's in a complete daze, but he knows one thing: Shiro has to be fine.

There aren't any other possibilities. The idea that he could have lost what he had been so happily dreaming about just a mere minute ago, that he can never have the later Shiro had promised him with his eyes, makes him want to give up on anything.

He pushes, pushes farther and runs faster. Maybe Shiro is hurt but still alive there, maybe he can rescue him. Maybe they have been attacked by machines but Shiro has fought them off, dashingly as he is.

Soon he can see the clearing right in front of him, engulfed in flames and smoke. It looks like nothing could survive there, like the earth itself is going up in flames.

There as to be another possibility, Shiro can't be _dead_. He refuses to believe it.

Before he can reach the clearing, however, something stops him. Two arms catching him mid run and halting his progress. He struggles, ready to punch whomever it is in the face. All he knows right now is that he has to go to Shiro, has to be sure that he's all right.

"Keith!" he hears, a panicked voice he recognizes says, "Keith, snap out of it!"

He looks up at his aggressor and he recognizes he's crying when he can't make up the face immediately.

Kolivan looks at him with a strange seriousness in his eyes, with something that speaks of sadness and comprehension.

"No," Keith tells him, struggling some more. "No!" he screams, trying to look towards the clearing, "you need to let me go! I need... Shiro is in there."

Kolivan doesn't let him go, but tightens his hold on him.

"Keith, please," Kolivan tries, but Keith screams over him. Calling Shiro's name desperately.

Soon he feels Kolivan release him and Keith is ready to sprint over to where the flames are starting to recede before he feels something collide with the back of his head.

His last thought before losing consciousness, is a memory of that little Shiro who had called out to him when no one else had ever done before.

 

 

Keith comes to slowly and he realizes he is in their hut. He hears the fire of their cooking pot crackling and the heavy boar pelt on his skin.

For a second he hopes that it was just a dream, that he overslept and it's still the day of the proving, that he can save Shiro from his fate.

When he opens his eyes, he brings his hand to his face and he sees the little cuts and bristles he made to himself when he had run towards the clearing with all he had.

Everything had been incredibly real.

He sits up and he hears something moving out of the hut. He's not sure about what to do, but he forces himself to stand up and walk towards the door.

When he opens it Kolivan is standing a little bit down in the creaking of their hut, throwing arrow after arrow at one of their targets.

He releases the last one, bow string perfectly tense and then he looks back at Keith. Something heavy and sad in his eyes, just like when he had stopped Keith from running towards the flames.

"I'm sorry," Kolivan says, but Keith doesn't care about apologies.

"What happened?" he asks, and his voice is raw, like he had pulled something by screaming too loud.

Kolivan sighs and lets the bow go, moving towards Keith. "It was an ambush. I don't know who they were, I just know that one of them had a thing like yours in his ear."

Keith startles at the revelation and touches his own ear, where the focus still is. It had been silent all this time, so much so that Keith had forgotten about it. Maybe he could have activated it at the sight, seen if someone was still alive, but he had been too in shock to even do it.

He remembers the Prince he had met the day before, with the wicked smile and focus in his ear. All of Galra military he had said.

A plan forms in his mind and where before it had been only sadness, now a rage began building up, destructive and all encompassing. He knows, now, who is responsible for it. Who took Shiro away from him, who took the future they had.

He will kill them, that is the only thing he wishes.

"He won," Kolivan says, snapping Keith out of his musing. "Your boy. He was the first one to arrive by miles. No one could compare to him. And when the fight broke out, I heard the survivors, he protected them."

Keith felt the sting of tears prickle at the corner of his eyes, but he refuses to let them go. This is not the time for crying. This is the time to react.

"Yeah," he says, voice still raw and broken, "that sounds like Shiro."

 

 

He gets his focus and dagger ready and he looks behind at Kolivan.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" he asks, but he already knows the answer.

"If I could convince you not to go," he says, "I would have done that. There's nothing to be gained from this, Keith."

Keith grips his bag a little tighter and shakes his head. "There is," he says, curt. Because he doesn't think he can live without doing something. He doesn't think he can live without revenge.

It will take him almost four days to reach the border by foot, and he will have to sneak in. If the Galra prince was the one who had ordered the hit, it was possible that a full-blown war would soon start between the Galra and the Embrace and the borders would be monitored even more closely.

He doesn't have time to waste. "I thank you for everything you've done for me," Keith tells Kolivan, "I have always considered you like my real father. Even if it was just me."

He doesn't wait for Kolivan's answer, doesn't care to hear it. He had left one person without telling him the truth about his own feelings, and now he will never have the possibility of rectifying this, he's not interested into making the same mistake again.

The moment he steps into the clearing at the base of the mountain where his house was situated, however, he hears another terrible sound and he looks up towards the Garrison, he sees smoke, just like yesterday but much smaller.

He runs there as quickly as he can, thinking that maybe it's the same men from yesterday, but when he arrives there, he sees there is only machines attacking the Garrison. He would live, left them to sort this all out, but his focus pings and activates on his own, pointing to a particularly strange machine.

Keith has never seen anything like it before, it's bigger than all the others, and it shoots missiles from its back. Mostly, what his focus tells him, it's that it's capable of corrupting other machines.

Keith sees it in action the moment the machine snarls and hits another machine in the back with a ray. The watcher snarls and starts to turn red. going into override.

If Keith was able to do something like that, he could create an army. He could have a chance to defeat the Galra.

He readies his own dagger and dashes forward, joining the fight with the rest of the Garrison's cadets. No one comments on his presence, probably too focused on not dying to care, and Keith doesn't even look at them.

The machine is bigger and stronger than anything Keith has ever seeing, but his blade made with the metal of the people of old cut his skin easily and Keith is fast enough to avoid most of its attacks.

Still, it's a long fight and a hard one at that. By the time the beast falls the village's square is almost in ruins and Keith is panting by the body of the machine. He activates the focus and lets it point him in the right direction: on the side of his gun there is a part called _Override mainboard_ and when Keith reaches for it and extracts it it turns out to be just a chip.

Keith had hunted and harvested machines all his life and he has a basic understanding of what to do with machines parts, how to use them to create arrows and spears, but he doesn't know what to do with a chip.

He looks at it thanks to his focus and then at his own blade and the focus shows him the way to mix the two together, how his blade is made of circuits and metal just like that machine was and if just connects them in the right way, then his blade too will be able to corrupt the machines.

This, he thinks, it's the start of his revenge.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
>   
> 
> 
> And we've reached the end of this story! Thank you all so much for the support. I didn't think this fic would get any attention, but I loved the idea too much <3  
> So for day 17 (one day later) this is all! Thank you!
> 
> PS: This time I've put links inside some of the machines names, just to give you all a visual.

The first time, he goes for a Strider. These kinds of machines are easier to catch by surprise, and less dangerous than others. Once he has taken care of the Watchers circling the Striders it’s just a matter of getting closer without being noticed and then striking at the part where it’s joint give away to his inner belly.

It’s the part where they are more exposed and he stabs them without hesitation. The moment he does his focus activates, resonating with the chip in his blade.

They are synching and he watches as the color of the machine’s wiring changes slowly, from a vibrant purple to a deep red. The moment it finishes he draws back the blade and the machine turns towards him.

Keith’s breath gets stuck in his throat. He has never watched a machine from so close if not in the midst of battle, and his instinct tell him to _attack_ , but he holds position.

The Strider watches him for a second and then he lowers his head, getting closer to Keith’s hand. It takes a moment, but he raises his hand and touches the machine’s snout, almost startling at the cold of the metal. The Strider is _his_.

All the other machines start to move around them, noticing that something is wrong, so Keith jumps on the Striders back and signals for it to go. He’s not sure how this work, if his focus is sending the machine the orders the moment he thinks them or if something else is at play, but this is exactly what he needed.

 

 

Keith starts to put this new power to good use. He tests around different machines, but he mostly sticks to the easier ones in the beginnings.

He doesn’t need anything bigger to take care of the few Galra encampments he finds, and he needs to test the limit of this little trick.

In the beginning the machines obey to him for an hour at most before they start to revert, so Keith has to be sure he doesn’t overstay his welcome.

He changes his prey quickly, sending the one that are slipping from his grasp as distraction for the Galra soldier he needs to attack.

But, slowly, his power grows. He uses all the parts of the machine he kills to create better weapons and, sometimes, his focus notifies him of some kind of interaction between some special parts and his blade. It’s like the weapons of the people of old could be upgraded indefinitely, and Keith discovers new powers.

His blade can now grow even bigger, and shock the machines to stun them. Little by little the time he has control of a machine grows, and his focus seems to register all the machines he can take control over and informs him when he analyzes them.

Keith grows bolder and more confident every kill. But as much as his powers grow so does his reputation and the plans his enemy have against him. Just as the prince had told him, most of the Galra military uses the focus in some way or another, and they seem to be able to talk with each other. They talk and strategize against him. They start keeping turned machines around, as to contrast his, and since Keith has stuck with the weaker of machines he can find, most of the time they don’t live until the end of the fight.

He sighs, looking at the wreck of his newest recruit and knows that he has to change his plan and chose a bigger target. He just doesn’t know what.

 

Keith hears the tale while he’s traversing one of the Galra cities. Not many people recognize him, thankfully, since only the military wears the focuses.

He’s sitting in a bar, using the last of the coins he has stolen from a group if bandits to buy some food. Months have passed now ever since he had left home, and Keith is starting to acclimatize to life in the wild. It’s not easy, and it lacks the routine of the Embrace, but he had always wanted to see the world. He regrets the circumstances, but when he can he stops to look around and think what Shiro would say.

Right now, he imagines what Shiro would think of what Keith is eating—he would probably find it disgusting—when he hears some people one table over, discussing a particular tough Sawtooth. He seems to be proving difficult for the town’s Hunters.

“He has killed the last three hunters we have sent after it,” someone says, gulping down his drink, “at this rate, he’ll just decimate everyone.”

“Why is it so special?” the other asks, curiously. “We’ve been killing Sawtooth since the beginning of time.”

“No one knows. It’s completely red, strange for a machine. It might be a different model,” the man finishes, shrugging it off.

Keith finishes his plate and rises, decided.

Trying to be safe isn’t an option that’s working out for him anymore, and while Keith had learnt patience from Kolivan and strategy from Shiro, he thinks he needs to pull a _Keith_ this once.

It’s time to go hunting.

 

 

The red [Sawtooth](https://i.imgur.com/ZIEFkyH.jpg) has been spotted about five miles from the city, and it seems that it’s the reason the city is experiencing a drought of goods. Keith will just do them a favor, really.

It doesn’t take much thanks to the machine he manages to hack and ride. Machines don’t get tired, they just keep going until you destroy them. It’s one of their most dangerous qualities, but right now also one of Keith’s better advantages.

His focus picks up the machine’s signature before Keith can _see_ it, and there is something different in the way this Sawtooth is registered. Keith looks at it for a second before realizing that it seems to be a different model, more bulky and aggressive than the ones that roam the earth normally.

It’s perfect. The focus also alerts him of the fact that it doesn’t know if it’s able to take control of the machine, but it’s too late to turn back. Keith needs something _strong_ , something he can ride and _keep_. He needs to be protected even while he’s not actively attacking a camp, and he needs something _powerful_.

The red Sawtooth, that Keith decides to call Red for convenience, is bigger than any other of his kind. It walks a little faster than what Keith is used to seeing, and his pattern of movement is more erratic. It seems to have more of a personality that other models, and that might be the reason why there aren’t as many around.

Keith grips his blade tighter and gets down from the Strider he has ridden until here. He needs to do this alone. It is a matter of principle now. If he doesn’t manage to defeat this alone, then he will never be able to avenge Shiro. He will never be able to destroy an entire empire.

Keith needs to be stronger than any single machine; he needs to be stronger than anything else in this world. He adjusts the grip on his blade and he sneaks forward. The high grass works as the perfect cover to remain unnoticed and he watches the beast.  It’s snarling, like there is something making it go mad.

In a way it looks like a caged beast, unsure of its purpose. Keith feels for it, and wonders if machine really could have personalities like them.

In the end, he doesn’t have that much time to think about it.

He attacks when Red moves closer, snarling from his mouth. It has taken him a while to notices the weak point in his armor, but he attacks with precision, planting the blade exactly where the armor gives away.

Normally the focus activates immediately and the machine is too stunned to move, his entire being rewritten quickly and effectively; Red doesn’t work that way.

Keith’s focus starts his work, but the machine growls and moves away, dragging Keith with it. All he can do is grasp the blade tighter and hold on. He’s thankfully in a sport where none of the machine’s paws can reach, and all he needs to do is keep his grip while the beast tries to throw him off.

“Stop fighting,” he grits out, his arms growing tired by the second. It seems like there is something fundamentally resisting Keith inside the machine, a master command that is working against Keith’s own. Still, Keith won’t stop.

He pushes the blade deeper into the machine and he watches as it stops moving, slowly.  For a moment Keith watches it, his circuits still purple and wonders if he hadn’t just slowly killed it. It would have been a waste. Such an incredible machine, one to remember, one to respect.

It takes a second before Red lights up again, getting up and towering over Keith before it lowers his head, much like the Strider had done that first time. Keith smiles at the sight, confident of his win.

“Good kitty,” he says petting the beast.

Now, now it’s time to destroy an empire.

 

 

Keith and Red become a legend among the whispers. Fearful murmurs in the night of a Garrison boy riding a beast made of flame. Keith likes it this way.

He attacks encampment after encampment, trying to find the correct strategy to storm the Galra empire city when, one day, one of the focus of a dead soldier speaks to him. It lights up with a green-ish color and Keith picks it up, curious.

In a second his focus synch up with it and an image flashes in front of Keith’s eyes.

It reminds him of that first message that he had found recorded in the focus, but it seems in lower quality. It’s a girl, one of the mechanical clan up in the north, if the way she dresses is any indicator.

“Hello, Keith. I think it’s time we talk,” she says and he jumps back, startled. He had never seen anyone else but the Galra use the focus as a way to communicate and didn’t know that his could do the same. She seems delighted at his surprise.

“You hacked into a Galra focus,” he tells her, a little in awe, and she just smiles cockily.

“Yeah, like it’s hard. They really don’t have any idea how this works. Nor do you, really,” she looks at him like she’s examining him, judging him. “But unlike them, we’re on the same team. What do you say?”

He doesn’t really know if he should trust her, but what does he have to lose exactly. He has Red on his side, and maybe this is the chance he needed to discover something more about the mystery of the attack at the proving.

“Fine,” Keith accepts in the end, “tell me where.”

“I’ll send the position to your focus,” her voice sounds pleased and a little excited, “and Keith? Bring that Sawtooth.”

The images disappear before Keith can ask for a name.

 

 

Keith arrives at the point of the map riding Red, and he looks surprised at the wreckage in front of him. It looks like the relic of the people of old, but bigger than the last one he was into.

The moment he steps near, his focus activates and the voice of the girl speaks loud in his years. “Good, you’re here. Step in, I’m meeting you outside. I need to see that machine.”

Still a little miffed he doesn’t move, looking at the entrance with a grimace. “Why should I trust you?”

“Isn’t it a bit late to ask that?” she asks, amused, “you’re already here. This could have been a trap.”

Red growls under him and Keith pats the metal with a fond look. “I think we could handle ourselves.” Truthfully, nothing the Galra have tried to throw at them had even scratches the paint on Red’s metal skin. Red was a thing of beauty, created for pure power.

“Yeah, but I mean…” and then a figure appears, riding a green [Longleg](https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/005/766/723/large/tom-delboo-4k-robots-longleg-ingame-12.jpg?1493639337), a bird machine that is most fearsome for its ability to call in reinforcements. “I think it would be better to talk.”

 

 

Pidge explains to him what has been happening, having studied the plans of the Galra ever since they killed her brother. She has been going deep into ancient history, combing through any information she could gather. Exploring ruins and studying the data in the devices they call focus.

It appears like machines where created to help humans and the earth sustain itself, having various uses from farming to actively terraforming. The more aggressive machines were once just there to destroy metals of machines that had stopped working. Five different machines were created to keep a look out for this, they worked in a different way: as protectors and guardians of the other machines.

Something had happened, a wild program in _whatever it was_ that kept creating the machines, had taken control and started a self-destruct sequence for the entire world. The machines’ targets had switched, their main focus switching on eliminating humans.

“How is it possible?” Keith asks, and Pidge shrugs.

“The best I can tell, is that whatever required someone to build a terraforming sequence, was afraid of it failing and maybe ruining the earth more. A self-destruct clause made sense,” she tries to explain, “in case the machines’ work wasn’t enough.”

This program is called Quintessence, and it seams that it doesn’t have a body, but has slowly corrupted the focus of the King and Queen of Galra, that now obeyed every one of his commands.

Pidge reveals that she thinks their best bet would be to take control of the five guardian machines, who are immune to the program influence. The problem is, every focus can only control one machine.

“So we need to find someone who is already in possession of a focus and is not on the Galra side?” Keith summarizes, a little discouraged. It doesn’t seem like the easier of tasks.

“Don’t worry, I already know who,” Pidge says, smiling, “two stupid kids who had gone exploring the ruins on a dare and found two focuses. I’ve been talking to them, they went in search of the machines. A blue [Snapmaw](https://img00.deviantart.net/966f/i/2017/070/2/2/horizon_zero_dawn_snapmaw_by_thisgirlliketf-db1ynnm.jpg) and a Yellow [Trampler](https://img00.deviantart.net/8b74/i/2017/062/a/c/hzd__trampler__by_xelku9-db130q1.jpg).”

Keith nods and wonders about the last of the machine. Pidge, reading his mind, brings up the information about the last machine. A Black Ravager.

“It is the stronger of the five,” she explains, looking concerned, “I don’t know who would be good for it. It wouldn’t be easy, taming it”

Keith doesn’t talk, doesn’t think about how Shiro would have looked on the back of a Ravager. He would have had the skills and the stubbornness. Yet, Shiro will never be able to.

Still, he looks at Pidge and the pure joy in her eyes. She seems to be happy to have finally found another member, and he doesn’t know how to break it to her.

“I can’t stay,” he hopes that he sounds as sorry as he feels, but Shiro had always told him that his emotions didn’t really shine through his words (‘your eyes, now those are expressive’). “There is something I need to do, someone I need to find.”

“The attack on the proving in your village, right?” Pidge interrupts him, looking at him. “I listened to it, after. I think I can help you find the Prince.”

Keith blink and sits back down. “Tell me.”

 

 

Pidge’s information brings him to an excavation site (“They are uncovering lost machines, those who were created before the terraforming and are stronger for it”) and he knows that he should be careful, Lance and Hunk are screaming in his ear enough, but it doesn’t matter.

They had offered to come with him, but he had refused. _This_ was his fight.

Keith looks back at Red, ready to pounce behind him, and he takes a moment to remember Shiro’s skin against his; Shiro’s hand on Keith’s cheek. His smile, _his voice_. He doesn’t really care how far he has to go to avenge him, he will do it.

He attacks, Red hot on his heels, and he kills them up one by one while Red wreaks havoc of their own corrupted machines. He kills more soldiers than he can count until, in the end, only the Prince and his four generals are left alive.

The Prince doesn’t really seem perturbed by Keith’s prowess, but he eyes Red with a mild curiosity.

"I remember you," the Prince says, in the end, with a smile, "they searched for you that day. The Quintessence really wants you dead."

"Why?" Keith snarls, pointing the blade towards him, "tell me why I should listen to you and not kill you immediately."

And Lotor smiles. "Because I have information for you. I can tell you what you want to know about the Quintessence, and most importantly, I can tell you where your friend is."

Keith stops, frozen on the spot, while Red snarls beside him. _Friend_?

(“Don’t listen to him, Keith,” Pidge says in his year, he’s probably trying to confuse you.  
  
“Yeah, I mean, he’s a lying dick!” Lance pipes in.

“But… what if he’s telling the truth?” Hunk’s more subdued answer arrives. And Keith removes the focus from his ear)

"What do you mean?" he asks, his own voice distant to his own ears. The metal of the focus weights in his hand, but the prospect of what Lotor is implying, the possibility that Shiro is still alive, makes his knees weak.

"He called your name a lot," Lotor continues, "while my mother and her croons operated on him. I wondered if maybe you knew each other."

" _What are you talking about_?" he screams, taking a step forwards, blade ready to strike. The generals get ready to intercept, but Red snarls at them again and forces them to stay in their place. Keith can’t really focus on anything else but Lotor and his smile, satisfied and wicked.

"Shiro," Lotor continues, "that was his name, wasn't it?"

For a second Keith doesn't breathe. The news he had wanted to hear since the moment of the explosion, that Shiro could be alive and well, renders him unable to properly _think_ , his entire vision zeroing on Lotor.

"Where is he?" Keith asks, his voice barely a whisper.

"I'll tell you. That and everything you want to know, but in exchange you help me with my little problem..." Lotor smiles, fixing his own hair, "as crazy as it sounds I was never really that interested in working for a crazy voice. Help me kill my father and mother, and I will make sure you see your Shiro again."

"No," Keith snarls, "you tell me now. And _then_ we'll do what you want."

"That's not..." Lotor starts, but Keith pushes forward one last time, stopping when his blade is mere inches from Lotor's throat.

"Now that I know he's alive I can just search the whole Galra land and I _will_ find him. I don't need you. So tell me, or I will take care of you."

Lotor complies.

 

 

 

He storms the facility with even more brutality than even before and he feels satisfied when the bodies of the Galra Soldiers fall to ground, dead.

Lotor and his generals aren't participating in the mission. They had offered, but Keith still doesn't trust them and he prefers to do things on his own. Pidge, Lance and Hunk had offered too, but Keith knew he needed to do this on his own.

Shiro, from what he knows, is kept deep into the facility and Keith makes sure that nothing else survives his wrath. Every one of them had complied in keeping Shiro hidden, probably hurt. And Keith feels no remorse in killing them.

When he finally reaches the last room, he enters and sees a body strapped to one of the beds. It has to be Shiro, but Keith almost doesn't recognize him. He looks changed now, with a tuff of white hair and a scar on his nose. More than a year has passed since Shiro and Keith have seen each other, and Keith feels aged in ways he didn’t think possible.

Yet he looks at Shiro, and a part of him feels eight again, looking for the first time in the eyes of someone _pleased to meet him_.

On Shiro’s left arm there is a part of a machine, attached to something that looks like burnt skin. When he looks at it his focus identifies his arm as an Override, just like the one Keith has in his blade.

They had wanted to use him as they used the machines? Or had they wanted to use him for something else?

Keith has no intention to wait and find out.

He takes Shiro's body and drags him out. When Red sees him, he offers to take Shiro from him, but Keith shakes his head. This is a burden he'll gladly take.

 

 

When Shiro wakes up he's confused, and he looks at Keith like he doesn't believe he's real, but Keith just takes his face in his hand and holds it there.

While Shiro's body had changed, his eyes haven’t and they are still as deep as he remembers; he loses himself in them, and he fears for a second that this isn’t real.

"Talk to me," he begs Shiro, and the other, confused and dazed, still complies. Like he's unable to refuse Keith's wishes.

"Keith," he whispers, and then, a little more broken, " _Keith_."

Keith kisses him immediately, feeling like they have waited enough already.

It's a brief kiss, with Shiro as hurt as he is, but Keith tries to convey everything he can with it. It's something he hadn't believed he could ever have again, and the idea that he can, that this is something he gets to keep floors him.

Shiro is something he gets to keep.

When they separate, Shiro looks around at the little camp that Keith had built for them.

"They want," Shiro tries, but his head seems to be confused. Keith stops him, taking some of the water and making him drink.

"I know everything. I've been fighting them for more than a year. I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner," he says, fixing the boar pelt higher on Shiro's torso. It will keep him warm for the night, at least until they manage to reach Pidge’s hideout the next day.

"You have been fighting them? Alone?" Shiro asks, looking at him with a worried frown.

Keith smirks, looking at the red Sawtooth that was circling around them, keeping guard. "Not alone, that's Red."

"You have a pet Sawtooth," Shiro says, with an unbelieving laugh. Keith joins in, looking at Shiro’s new arm.

"I took him with something similar to your new arm. We'll get you one too," he promises.

Shiro laughs and shakes his head, "I don't want a Sawtooth, I'm taking a damn [Ravager](https://img00.deviantart.net/1598/i/2017/066/7/5/hzd__ravager__by_xelku9-db130n8.jpg)."

Keith laughs at his answer and closes his eyes, remembering the vision he had once, when Pidge had talked about the Black Ravager, the one they needed to complete the five guardians. He imagines Shiro now, leading them all on the assault to the Galra and smiles.

“Yeah, we can get you one,” he assures him, with a little smirk, but Shiro doesn’t get the joke. Keith thinks about the others meeting Shiro, how good it will be to finally feel whole again.

"You saved me," Shiro says, after a second, "and you're fighting an entire evil nation on your on."

He knows that tone in Shiro's eyes, the self-doubt that creeps in that maybe he's not important enough for this, that Keith shouldn't have done all this for _him_. Keith makes sure to look at Shiro in the eyes.

"You were the first real voice that spoke to me. The first one that tried not because I was entrusted to them, but because he _saw_ me," he explains, shaking him slightly. "You, Shiro, are worth everything."

**Author's Note:**

> As always comments and kudos help in time of need (and stress. Totally self-caused stress but still).  
> And if you want to chat a little or idk, you can find me on twitter @chiapslock and tumblr @fatty-arbuckle


End file.
